Fortunately it’s not at the ear-bleeding crescendo you sometimes get in S E Asia. It made them an easy target for some macro-photos also.

I acquired a Sony a7R at the beginning of the year. The main reason was the desire for something lighter than the a900. So it would be useful for travel photography as well as landscapes. I’ve been meaning to try it out for macro-photography.

On the plus-side, the a7R has no AA-filter. That makes the images a little sharper (and more detailed). It is also a 36MP camera. Which gives it scope for cropping images of creepy-crawlies and still having a usable print. On the minus, well, it isn’t stabilised. And I wasn’t sure if the Electronic-viewfinder would be as good as the optical for this photography.

So far, it’s looking good. I shot this cicada in a Copromsa bush in our garden. The amount of detail is amazing. All I’ve done is a square-crop, so it is still a 24MP image.

]]>https://sciblogs.co.nz/chthonic-wildlife-ramblings/2016/02/25/singing-cicadas/feed/0Summer Singershttps://sciblogs.co.nz/chthonic-wildlife-ramblings/2014/02/23/summer-singers/
https://sciblogs.co.nz/chthonic-wildlife-ramblings/2014/02/23/summer-singers/#respondSun, 23 Feb 2014 07:32:00 +0000http://chthoniid.zenfolio.com/blog/2014/2/summer-singers
The cicadas have been particularly vocal this month. This has been helped by the numbers of them. The local population has exploded. Oddly, the neighbour’s cat had decided they’re good to hunt. Also to eat- the crunchy sounds of a cicada succumbing to the jaws of a domestic cat are interesting.

I’ve got a couple of shots of the ‘green’ species kihikihi wawa Amphipsalta zealandica here.

1. “The Singer” – the wings are blurred as it vibrates the sound.

2. “The Embrace” – the female is clinging to the grass stalk, while the male is err, clinging to the female